Kicking off our guide to South Africa in the run-up to the World Cup, Charles
Starmer-Smith suggests a boat trip to the notorious prison colony of Robben
Island.

ROBBEN ISLAND, CAPE TOWN

Robben Island provides a poignant reminder of how far South Africa has come since the dark days of apartheid and is a must-see for anyone heading to the Cape.

This remote outpost, which lies just a short boat ride from the Victoria & Albert waterfront, was a prison for criminals, political activists and even the infirm for centuries. But it was in the early 1960s that Robben Island became the penitentiary of recent memory – the era when beatings, hard labour and lengthy spells in isolation were the punishments meted out by the all-white warders.

Nelson Mandela, the island’s most famous inmate, was just one of thousands imprisoned here for little more than their anti-apartheid views. It is less than 15 years since the last of the prisoners left its shores.

A bus tour takes you past the house of Robert Subukwe, the once leader of the Pan-African Congress, to the limestone quarry where prisoners, including Mandela and Subukwe, were forced to spend their days chiselling at the white rock, their lungs exposed to the poisonous dust and eyes blinded by the glare. Then it is on to the maximum security prison where the most high-profile inmates were interred in tiny, spartan cells. Here, former inmates help bring to life the isolation and hardships endured and makes a visit here particularly moving. Mandela’s cell remains untouched to this day.

Beyond a cluster of whitewashed buildings, which the warders once occupied, a path leads down to the wild coastline where penguins and sea birds frolic among shipwrecks. Inland, antelope and eland feed on the wild grasses and white lilies carpet the ground, providing an inadvertent reminder of the centuries of suffering on this island.

Tickets cost R180 (£15) for adults; R90 (£7.50) for children under 18. The three and a half-hour tour includes a return trip across Table Bay. www.robben-island.org.za